Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the new DIDG grants program puts greater emphasis on industry priorities from the Defence Strategic Review and Defence Industry Development Strategy. Photo: ADF.
For companies looking to grow their businesses and that have products or services that are applicable in the Defence sector, apart from getting your product in front of the right audience, often the most challenging step is developing it to an acceptable level of maturity to be considered.
For years, the Department of Defence has offered various grant programs that invest in emerging technologies or capabilities for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) looking to break into the Defence market.
Until now, grants have been offered and allocated through Defence’s Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority and Defence Global Competitiveness Grant programs. However, these will make way for a new program announced in the Defence Industry Development Strategy (DIDS) released in February.
The DIDS outlines the defence industrial base capabilities outlined in the 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) and the actions the government will take to grow that industrial base and foster partnerships between Defence and industry.
The new Defence Industry Development Grant (DIDG) will look to provide funding to SMEs developing capabilities that align with the goals of the DIDS with a focus on sovereign capability, global competitiveness, technical superiority and national security.
The DIDG program will likely also look to encourage those technologies outlined in the AUKUS Pillar 2 construct, including cyber, autonomous systems, space, hypersonics, undersea systems and electronic warfare.
In launching the new DIDG program, Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said the program guidelines, which will allow applications to be submitted, will be released in the next few weeks.
“Through this new program, the Albanese Government continues to help local businesses to grow, innovate and create high skilled, well-paid jobs for hard-working Australians,” he said.
“The new program places stronger emphasis on our need to focus financial support on industry priorities, which have flowed from the Defence Strategic Review through the Defence Industry Development Strategy, which I released in February, and with clear alignment to the National Defence Strategy, which was released in April.”
In the cyber domain, Canberra-based cyber security and technology firm Bluerydge has been working with Defence for years and is now looking to offer its experience and advice to SMEs who may not have worked with Defence previously to assist them in navigating the often daunting grants process.
Apart from offering cyber products and solutions to government, part of Bluerydge’s mission is to support and mentor talented individuals for cyber security and technology contributions to the national interest. It is now looking to expand that mentoring to SMEs.
Bluerydge co-founder and CEO Jim Boekel says that while the company is not a grants-writing business, it can help guide SMEs through the grants process. Photo: Bluerydge.
Bluerydge co-founder and CEO Jim Boekel said the company welcomes the new grants process and is excited to further support the Australian defence industry.
“We’re definitely not a grant-writing business,” he said. “But we’re a company that has been through the experience ourselves, and we’ve found that, especially for small companies, it can be pretty hard to even know where to start.
“I’ve talked to a lot of companies, especially those that are new to Defence and don’t really even know where to start – it’s a whole different language for them,” he added.
“We’re happy to sit down at a high level with any company that’s serious and help them understand the process and see where they might be able to get the best bang for their buck under the grant.
“Additionally, with the increased focus on cyber security in recent years, businesses are also looking to uplift their cyber security to a baseline standard to protect their data and do business with Defence.”
Bluerydge is currently providing end-to-end support and helping various SMEs with their cyber security and technology requirements, including gaining certifications such as ISO 27001, DISP and CMMC.
The Defence Industry Security Program (DISP) is essentially a security vetting process for Australian organisations and is underpinned by the Defence Security Principles Framework.
ISO 27001 is an international standard for managing information security. It controls the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving information security management systems to ensure security.
For international and export applications, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is designed to protect US Federal Contract Information (FCI) and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) that is shared with contractors and subcontractors of US Department of Defense acquisition programs.
“It can be difficult to find the right information in the security space – specifically on exactly what they need to do and where to start,” Mr Boekel said.
“But because we’ve done it all ourselves, and as a cyber security and technology specialist – we’re DISP program certified, and we’re 27001 certified – we can walk them through that.
“Bluerydge is involved in a number of organisations and networks that work with emerging SMEs, but in this case, we’re also encouraging companies just to reach out directly, and we can have a no-obligation chat with them.”
Companies wanting more information on the DIDG grants process can check Business.gov.au and Defence.
For a discussion with Bluerydge, email [email protected] or phone 02 6183 6567.
Original Article published by Andrew McLaughlin on Riotact.
